Project Vert, outta control....More NEW PICS!!!! Progress!!!!

[NXcoupe]

Ok, so this is the story, which is ongoing of my 88 LX convertible. I bought it as an auto white with blue top and interior, yech. I liked it at first, and thought it was blazing fast until I took it to the track and cracked off some blistering 16's. Well, to say the least, I was really disappointed. Fast forward a few years, and I put all GT ground effects, front and rear bumper cover, and painted it with one of my custom paint jobs. I was painting and doing bodywork at the time, so I wanted to do it up. I also swapped in a mild 302 with a blower on it, an old Paxton SN series. The best thing I did was swap it to a 5 speed. Loved it! It was kind of quick and I really liked it, but eventually wanted a change, so I sold the blower and put a set of TFS twisted wedge heads on it, with a ported stock intake. Car went really low 13's, not bad for a vert. I swapped out to a TFS intake and it was so much better, the car pulled harder and felt like a mid 12 sec car. I had improved on my seat of the pants estimates by that time, lol. This all took about 6 years to happen. Well fast forward to about 4 years ago, I had pulled the engine out and sold it off, and had pretty much lost interest in the car. The paint job had been beaten up by employees not paying attention and your usual rude idiots in parking lots. I was just done with it for a while. So one day I got the drive again, and decided to build a shortblock for the car. It started out as a 306, but I'm telling you as a speed shop owner it's like a crack dealer being a crack addict. I just started looking around and checking prices and realized I could build a 347 for not much more money than a 306, and I could go forged internals for not much more than the SF 347, and my friends said, wouldn't it be cool if...... And now we begin my pics of the progress.
First was the engine, I worked at a local community college and they have a hp engine building class, and I helped teach it a couple years. Thought while I was at it, it would be cool to take the class and use the machines to get a better handle on it. Oh and I thought while I'm at it I'll build my engine in the class. So, I did all the block work myself, bored, honed, squared decked with mains, align honed, cleaned, assembled, balanced, etc. All myself. Here are the pics with the special TFS heads cam intake kit they put together for me. This was after ProCharger offered me yet another deal I couldn't pass up on a D1SC.
So, here is the engine fresh after finishing the assembly.

 

[NXcoupe]

Re: Project Vert, outta control....

Well, I decided it was time to move the vert from it's resting place in my garage. It had sat outside for about a year, and then moved inside before the snow flew in the winter. It sat for about 3 years in the garage, and my buddy Mark said he would come over with his wrecker and pull it over to my shop for me. Well, we went to push it out of the garage the day before to get it ready, and found out the front wheels were locked and so were the rears. :sad5: So, I had to pull the wheels off and push the calipers back and break the pads loose from the rusty rotors. I had do something similar to the rears. Well he showed up and towed it over to my shop for me, here it is leaving, looks pretty sad.

 

[NXcoupe]

Re: Project Vert, outta control....

Ok, so I got the car to the shop and it sat for a good long while as I was getting the rest of the details for my engine and trans together. Well a guy walks into the shop one day and buys a few things and tells me he does polishing, I said oh yeah? And he says I also can do chrome plating. Well you all saw my bling oil pan and my buddies were say, hey wouldn't it be cool if, and the next thing you know, I start pulling stuff off the shelf and out of the car to get polished or plated. I also got the ProCharger brackets polished and the head unit was already from the factory. Here's pics of that going together.

I know the a/c clutch looks like a$$ but I fixed that later on. You'll see that in the upcoming pics.

 

[NXcoupe]

Re: Project Vert, outta control....

These are few more. The blower started out to be me ordering a P1SC with a huge pulley on it to make around 8 to 9 psi. Well after talking to them, telling them that it was my car, etc, I came away with a D1SC, Sheet Metal intercooler, and a pulley for 12 psi. I told you this got out of control. And in a hurry. Remember, this is a FOX vert we're talking about, lol.

 

[NXcoupe]

Re: Project Vert, outta control....

Ok, so I built an engine for a guy up in norther Ohio, he was building a Elanor clone, so he wanted a windsor 427. I said I would build it, and he offered for partial payment a T56 he had bought off me, was still brand new and attached to the skid it was shipped on. I said, hmmm, my friends said, wouldn't it be cool if, and so I ended up with a standard Ford T56 for a sbf. Well, a friend of mine was staying in my extra bed room and he told me he had to go to Michigan for the week and would be passing by D&D and asked if I needed anything. Well, after talking with my buddy at D&D, I worked out a deal where I could trade this in on a viper spec T56 kit. Came with the trans, bellhousing, driveshaft and crossmember. I went ahead and loaded it into my buddies truck and he came back about two weeks later with a T56 Viper kit. Woohoo!

 

[NXcoupe]

Re: Project Vert, outta control....

This first pic is of the car sitting at my garage at my house. This was right before we realized the brakes were locked up.
Well, this went on for quite a while of me gathering parts, and one day my friends said let's set that engine down in there, get it out of the showroom and get the dust off of it and into a car. So we began the test fit. But first some pics of the poor car as it sat for nearly 6 months in my shop collecting dust and junk on it. This was my old shop, it was way too small and dark, like a dungeon. lol. I have a new one now, pics will be coming up as we get to that part of the story.
So here are pics of the car sitting.

 

[NXcoupe]

Re: Project Vert, outta control....

Well, my friends and I decided it was time to knock the dust off and set the engine down into the car. so I took it off the stand and bolted the flywheel and block plate to it. I wanted to make sure the blower wasn't going to hit the inner fender.

See, told ya I did something about that ugly a/c clutch assembly. lol.

 

[NXcoupe]

Re: Project Vert, outta control....

Next was the test fit. Mention shiney motor and beer and you'd be surprised the amount of help you'll get! especially in the winter when there's not much to do. lol.

 

[NXcoupe]

Re: Project Vert, outta control....

Some more of us getting it lined up in the Kmember.

This is me and my buddy John setting the blower in and belt, that's the easiest way to install the belt, put the belt on, then mount the blower. It's impossible nearly to get the supplied belt up over the pullies and tensioner once it's installed.

 

[NXcoupe]

Re: Project Vert, outta control....

Well, I got the engine sat down in there, and decided to see if everyone that was saying my old hood wouldn't fit it anymore were right or wrong.
The engine compartment didn't look that grungy before there was an engine in it!!!

Cameron and John setting the hood down on. It's a 1.5" cowl from HO Fibertrends. They make quality stuff. The also made the 95 R hoods for motorsport. It fit with about 1/2" to spare so I didn't need to sell my hood, but I wanted something different. But it was nice to get some facts and learn something in the process.

 

[pilks]

Re: Project Vert, outta control....

AWESOME

 

[Steven]

Re: Project Vert, outta control....

nice little car man

 

[NXcoupe]

Re: Project Vert, outta control....

Ok, so next up was to put the trans in and get the crossmember welded in and check exhaust clearance issues with the new crossmember. Crossmember lined up and went in easily. Subframe connectors will need to be modified as well as the mount itself, but no biggie.

 

[NXcoupe]

Re: Project Vert, outta control....

thanks guys!

 

[NXcoupe]

Re: Project Vert, outta control....

Well, you could see just how ugly that engine compartment and Kmember are with that beautiful engine in it, so I decided something had to be done. I called my buddy Jeremy at UPR and asked him about one of his Kmember kits for my vert. I ordered it up and had it sent on it's way. I also decided that just a cleaning wasn't going to do for my engine compartment, so my friend Mike and I started stripping everything out of the engine compartment including the front suspension. Then we sanded down the engine compartment and masked everything off, and sprayed some primer on it to cover up some pitting and chips.

 

[NXcoupe]

Re: Project Vert, outta control....

So we set up a plastic 'tent' draped from the cieling and down, then wet the floor and with everything final sanded and cleaned, I sprayed the black single stage on it. It really turned out nice! I was really happy with it. I also needed to paint where the new caster camber plates were going to go on it.

You can see we used bags to cover the master cylinder, and aluminum foil on brake lines, tape on other stuff. Turned out really nice.

 

[NXcoupe]

Re: Project Vert, outta control....

Ok, so next was the Kmember, caster camber plates, polished power steering rack, lower control arms and the coil over kit.

I bought this rack from Summit because they said it was polished, bull. It's tumbled. Far cry and it sucks as far as feel goes, so it may just be on it's way out after a while.

 

[NXcoupe]

Re: Project Vert, outta control....

Another view with the CC plates installed and a pic of the coil over kit. I reused the stock struts, just got tight on funds believe it or not, lol.

 

[NXcoupe]

Re: Project Vert, outta control....

I hid most of the wiring outside the engine compartment, also moved the battery to the trunk. Got a cool billet holder for it and one of those mini batteries. I also got a polished PA alternator 3G retrofit kit for it. Polished, of course. lol. I just couldn't justify the chrome one. The car has a pretty nice sounding system in it, so I wanted something to keep the battery from going dead.

And then it was time to let it down.

 

[NXcoupe]

Re: Project Vert, outta control....

I also took this opportunity to put the 40 mile long speedo cable on from D&D. You can see it in the previous picture, it's the long cable out there took me a minute to remember what the heck that thing was!